BLEACHERS BREW EST. MAY 2006

Someone asked me how my blog and newspaper column came to be titled "Bleachers Brew". It's like this, it's an amalgam of sorts of two things: The bleachers area in the stadium/arena where I used to sit when I would watch baseball, football, and basketball games and Miles Davis' great jazz album Bitches Brew. That's how it got culled together. I originally planned on calling it "The View from the Big Chair" that is a nod to Tears For Fear's second album, Songs from the Big Chair. So there.

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Remembering,
celebrating and paying tribute to Ateneo’s Fab Five (and the rest of the Lady Eagles)

by rick olivares

Watching the Ateneo Lady Eagles go down in three sets
to the three-time champion La Salle Lady Spikers, I wanted to hug my team and
if humanly possible, take the hurt away.

I have been close to many Ateneo teams but perhaps
the one that is closest to my heart is the Women’s Volleyball Team.

In 2006, Ricky Palou invited me to watch the Lady
Eagles who were going to play UST at the Blue Eagle Gym. I remember it so well.
“Di ba you like volleyball,” asked Mr. Palou.

I nodded. I played volleyball as an intramural sport
in school. I loved it but only after baseball, football, and basketball (in
that order). I watched volleyball every chance I got whether it was the
Olympics or some Grand Prix tournament. I asked Palou, “Are we any good? Baka
naman puro lang magaganda yung girls but they can’t play?”

The University Athletics Director looked at me like I
said something sacrilegious. The girls – Charo Soriano, Karla Bello, Patty
Taganas, Charlie Tan, Steph Veluz, Steph Gabriel, and rookies Misha Quimpo and
Bea Pascual and others – played UST that was a powerhouse team. They lost that
game, a contentious one at that but I came away a huge fan.

The games were played either at UP or Ateneo then and
there were quite a few fans turning out.

The following year, I brought Gatorade and other
sports drinks, fruits, and even water to every game. I never missed a game and
began to watch them in earnest (even occasionally helping out the coaching
staff on occasion on ideas and strategies).

The next year, the team looked good enough to make
the Final Four but they suffered a huge loss when Bea went out with a
season-ending knee injury.

When Bea crumpled to the floor of BEG, the whole
place went deathly quiet. Her screams of pain were unnerving and they froze
most people to where they sat and stood. I rushed to the floor with assistant
coach Clint Malazo and eventually helped her on a makeshift stretcher to the
other side (Charo Soriano brought her to the Moro Lorenzo Sports Center after).

I guess that was officially when I became really
close to this team. That year, the team had a problem with the libero position.
Steph Gabriel and Misha Quimpo alternated at the position. It wasn’t their
natural one and they clearly struggled. Sensing their problems, I oft sat down
with them to offer encouragement and to pump them up. After all, who was going
to do it? Their only fans back then were their Ateneo Men’s counterparts and a
few classmates who deigned to watch.

At the time Coach Ron left the team for neighboring
UP. We were in touch the whole time and I tried to serve as the middleman for
whatever problems there were. It was a tough situation, I’ll say.

The following season, the Ateneo Sports Shooters and
I put together the first ever Ateneo Sports Calendar and we featured the
veterans – Bea, Steph, Kara Acevedo, and Misha in the calendar. During the
shoot, I remember the four of the five rookies – Fille Cainglet, Jem Ferrer,
Gretchen Ho, and Dzi Gervacio - staying to watch. I had not met the rookies yet
and Bea introduced me to all of them. “What’s this for,” asked Gretch who
looked excited about what we were doing. I explained things and said they
(along with A Nacachi) would get their chance to be on the calendar the
following season.

I heard of Fille, Dzi, and Gretch while they were in
high school. Their reputation preceded them. And as highly recruited players, I
felt getting the Fab Five to come to Ateneo was like winning a championship.
Ateneo had two sets of Fab Fives that year. Over in hoops, the Blue Eagles had
Ryan Buenafe, Vince Burke, Justin Chua, Tonino Gonzaga, and Nico Salva. In
volleyball, -- there they were.

And from the get go the Fab Five made Ateneo highly
competitive. They not only started but they also gamely battled the league’s
superpowers (FEU, UST, Adamson, and La Salle). They went through at least five
five-setters (and lost every one of them) and as disappointing as the results
were they were at the same time, exhilarating. How good can these girls get?
Can they help end the title drought? Look at their effect on the game and the
crowds.

The team began to win. They made it back to the Final Four. They won a couple of V-League titles. They began to win individual awards. Their popularity grew massively. The sport of volleyball started to grow that by the start of their final season, my officemates could no longer deny it. I too hoped that like their Blue Eagle counterparts, they'd nail that elusive UAAP championship.

Roger Gorayeb was my walking partner that season (we
walked around the campus for an hour before volleyball practice at 6pm). In the
few walks we had together, we would talk about lots – recruiting, strategies,
the girls, opposing teams, and even San Sebastian. With Roger and the Fab Five
on board, I thought it was a matter of time before the team won a UAAP title.
They won a couple of V-League titles and that made me (and many others look
forward to the UAAP tourney).

It was cool writing about the Lady Eagles. No one
really wrote about them in 2006 (save perhaps for TJ Jurado and the folks at the now defunct Spike It Hard). Not even for the Ateneo website or even the
school newspaper.

After the freshman season of the Fab Five in 2008-09,
I began to miss their games (because of a heavier workload). I had to content
myself to watching them mostly on television. But nothing changed. I was ecstatic when they won; morose when they lost.

Jem and Gretch tirelessly bugged me to watch them
play and to even write about them. It took a while to free myself of some
commitments but I sure don’t regret it. I sort of got back in the thick of
things two years ago beginning with the University Games at Roxas City. It
wasn’t easy as the only ones I knew on the team were the batch of 2008. But
slowly, I began to feel at ease with the new team.

It was hilarious and at the same time inspiring. When
in Roxas City to play their games, the crowds went all the way up to the third
floor of the building. Even the football and basketball teams of other schools
(Metro Manila and provincial) went to watch them play.

At this time, I began to work for GroupM where
Gatorade is the product I help handle (public relations and strategy-wise).
Like football, I worked hard to get brand to sponsor the team and the sport. I
pushed as early as 2010 to get Gretchen as a Brand Ambassador. I would be given
clearance to talk to her only to see the company back out. They were hedging
because volleyball wasn’t popular they said. Still I pushed and pushed. Finally
this year (even before the stadium attendance took a massive spike upwards), I
finally got management to see the light.

This past season has been a roller coaster ride of
emotions. There have been incredible wins and heartbreaking losses. Taking a
long hard look at the teams Ateneo had to face, I felt this season was going to
be very difficult trying to unseat La Salle. We will get past everyone else but
the champs were on another level. They had a line-up all right but they still missed that consistent middle attacking threat.

The finals series eerily mirrored the elimination
round matches – the first meeting a five-setter and the last one a clean sweep.

It’s funny how Fille, Jem, Gretch, Dzi, and A share
the moniker of “Fab Five” the same as that talented crew that played for
Michigan back in the early 1990s. They came in with a lot of attention. They
certainly helped make their college sport a whole more popular. They went to
the finals twice but came up short on both occasions.

Watching the Lady Eagles, it was obvious how
catastrophic the Game One loss was. It was said on television they were more at
ease in Game Two. Maybe so in spots here and there but they mostly looked
tentative and even lost. I still maintain that had they won their first round
meeting it might have been a different ending. But confidence especially in
volleyball can be fleeting. I hoped that the experience of winning two V-League
titles would allow them to dig deep into that reservoir of hope.

The few times they got going in Game Two, they lacked
fire that was on display for four of the five sets in the Game One clash. That
lack of conviction at the very end was perhaps their undoing. When La Salle
smelled blood in the water that was it.

It sure was painful watching them at game’s end shed
tears and knowing that it was all over. Their college careers done. And perhaps
even done with volleyball for good.

Yet I remain proud of who they are and what they have
accomplished. I choose to remember them, and celebrate them as having raised the
awareness of the sport in school and even elsewhere. I choose to remember them
as revolutionaries (along with their contemporaries) for the sport of
volleyball.

They may have not won the UAAP championship but they
fought the good fight and for that and the dignity in which they carried
themselves, they will always have a place in our hearts.

I still wish I could hug them and take away their
pain.

Thanks Fille, Jem, Dzi, Gretchen, and A. And of
course, to the rest of the Ateneo Lady Eagles.

One Big Fight!

Posted by
Rick Olivares

22 comments:

indeed, if we could only take away the pain in them...nevertheless their legacy and contribution to the world of volleyball and to the Ateneo community will always be remembered...they might not be the champion but they have won the hearts of lots of fans... fille, jem, dzi a and gretch THANK YOU SO MUCH!

Sir Rick, can u organize a big fans day for them? Oftentimes, during their UAAP games, coach Gorayeb didn`t allow them to mingle with their supporters especially when losing their games. Not a single photo-op or even a simple fansign...

I totally agree with this. Just a little way for us fans to give them our thanks and gratitude.. for inspiring all of us. What I really loved about them was they were never the most athletic, the tallest, nor the strongest in their position and that made them really relatable to the common fan. Thanks Fab Five!

Nothing but gratitude for the ALE's who will be graduating. The build-up was good enough to be the best (well, next) for the rest of the competition but La Salle. Hand it to the greenies. That I think is their only team championship this season. I may be wrong though. But Admu? Regained men's football, scored first in baseball, 5 peat in basketball, as well as the other team sports acknowledged at the bonfire.

Volleyball, both men's and women's, is the only remaining sport (at least now in the consciousness of the community) Ateneo may yet have to conquer. Baldo is still around. She may yet win one for the school before her graduation. But the coaching staff would have to figure first the green enigma. Hopefully.

Sir Rick had the same thought regarding the comparison with the Michigan Fab Five. As a kid, my first real introduction to the NCAA Men's Basketball was the Fab Five. With their baggy shorts and street attitude, they made people take notice. Our version of the Fab Five arguably made the same impact on the collegiate volleyball scene, minus the grit of course.

Neither were champions but Boom Gonzales said it best in his tweet: "Their legacy is bigger than a championship" (no disrespect meant to DLSU and past champions of course).

its just last year when i got hook to womens volleyball, and its becoz of the fab five + baldo. sobrang nakakaiyak at ang bigat sa dibdib na last year n nyo n. hands down to the fab five cainglet, ho, gervacio, ferrer, nacachi. we will surely miss you guys....whatever happen we'll forever be a lady eagle fan.......PUSO.... one big fight.....@yanipcee

its just last year when i got hook to womens volleyball, and its becoz of the fab five + baldo. sobrang nakakaiyak at ang bigat sa dibdib na last year n nyo n. hands down to the fab five cainglet, ho, gervacio, ferrer, nacachi. we will surely miss you guys....whatever happen we'll forever be a lady eagle fan.......PUSO.... one big fight.....@yanipcee

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What I do for a living?

I also write regularly for Business Mirror; philstar.com; abs-cbnnews.com, and rappler.com.

I am also currently the media officer for the Filoil Flying V Hanes Premier Cup, the National Basketball Training Center, and the Flying V Davao Thunders.

I do PR consultancy for a variety of clients that I do not want to divulge.

I used to teach journalism at the Ateneo de Manila University hand have given lectures about journalism, new media, marketing, and public relations at the Ateneo, UP Diliman, UST, San Beda, Immaculate Conception Academy, Miriam College, Mindanao State University, FIFA seminars, and a few other schools and organizations.

I used to write for the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Philippines Free Press, and Maxim Philippines. I have also contributed to FHM, Men's Health, Tower Sports NBA, Rebound, and a few other sports, interior design, and lifestyle magazines as well. Most recently, I was the editor-in-chief of PBA Life, the Official Lifestyle Magazine of the Philippine Basketball Association as well as Season 40 edition of Hardcourt, the season-in-review.

My blog, Bleachers' Brew, serves as a hub for many of my writings (but not all as there are some that are exclusive).

When I have free time, I listen to my collection of over 5,000 CDs, read, watch DVDs, or walk my dog around the subdivision.